


The Greatest Story Never Told

by wearethenorth



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Darcy Lewis, Darcy is the fandom bicycle and I love it, alien!darcy, that one au where darcy is a daughter of thanos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-08
Updated: 2014-09-08
Packaged: 2018-02-14 23:19:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2206827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wearethenorth/pseuds/wearethenorth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's something about humanity that fills Duena's heart with hope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Greatest Story Never Told

She’s inhabited Earth for thirteen years, seven months, and twenty-two days when the first incident occurs.

There’s a shift in the atmosphere that makes Duena’s hands pause on the steering wheel. As if reaffirming her suspicions, Jane’s equipment whirrs to life. _What I wouldn’t give for my quadblaster right about now…_ Except that she’d left all her weapons on her ship, which she hasn’t seen in thirteen years, seven months, and twenty days. _If only Gamora could see me now._ It had seemed like a good idea at the time, when she had been desperate to completely sever herself from her past.

When she had first landed on this insignificant planet, she had done so with confidence that here, in the armpit of the galaxy, she wouldn’t waste away as a pawn under Thanos’ gaze. After thirteen years, her harsh opinion of the planet had bloomed into a semblance of fondness, and she cherished her new home away from her troubles.

Yet now, as she sees the vortex whirling towards the dusty plains of New Mexico in multicolored flashes, she thinks that maybe Terra is not so insignificant after all.

* * *

 

“Jane, get it together. You’ve known the dude all of two days.”

“I can’t, Darcy! I know it’s strange and stupid, but I can’t stop worrying about him! What if he’s hurt? Or what if he returned to Asgard and forgot all about that ‘dorky little Earth girl’? I— Ugh! Am I an idiot?”

Sometimes it baffles Duena.

The human emotional spectrum is far wider than her own species’, from what little she can remember of her blood relations. And yet, their compassion and affection lightened her heart more than anything she had witnessed in her short seven centuries of life.

“No, Jane. You’re human.”

When the second incident strikes, it’s just after SHIELD has relocated them to a remote facility in Tromso, and Duena sits as far away from the television as she can, one hand gripping the pommel of a knife underneath her skirt.

The Chitauri are mindless beings—created by Thanos for the sole purpose of destroying his enemies—but even they would recognize a daughter of Thanos.

 _One could never escape the marks he branded us with_ , she thinks as her other hand drifts to the jumble of scars on her shoulders concealed by her thick sweater.

The Avengers ensure, however, that Thanos’ influence does not take a foothold on this side of the universe, and his armies are sent back into the abyss from whence they came.

Once more, Duena of Lumin is reminded of the marvels of planet Earth.

It’s another two years before another incident takes place, and this time, Duena is ready.

When the Svartálfari come for them, she doesn’t take anymore pains to hide.

Terra is no longer invisible among the stars, now that Thanos had set his sights on it. And it was high time that she showed the rest of the universe that her home was protected.

Jane Foster—to her credit—doesn’t faint when Duena pulls out her quadblaster and unleashes hell on the dark elves.

They scatter, cowering against the force of her elements.

Only Thor recognizes her as a daughter of Thanos once she lets her glamour fade, but the others’ fear is tangible, and she realizes that she missed this.

“You betrayed us,” the prince of Asgard says when all is over. His face is just as thunderous as the rapidly darkening sky, and Duena can’t help but tense.

“I didn’t betray anyone, Big Guy.”

Old habits die hard, after all.

“’Darcy Lewis’. Duena of Lumin. How could I be so blind?”

“I didn’t want to be found,” she grits her teeth. “I’ve made a life here, Asgardian. _Your_ coming put that to an end.”

“What are you talking about?” Jane practically shrieks. “Darcy?”

Her annoyance fades, and she takes a step forward to her and Erik, who immediately step back. _They fear me_ , she realizes with a deep sadness. _They have every right to_.

“Jane—“

“You’re an alien?” She turns to Ian, who promptly faints.

“You have some serious explaining to do.”

And explain she does.

Jane hugs her afterwards, followed by Erik, and—after a moment’s hesitation—Thor. And if she cries, well, no one in that room was going to tell.

* * *

 

There were, of course, legal complications to her exposure. It was the very next morning the SHIELD showed up on Jane’s mom’s doorstep and demanded Darcy’s surrender.

“Ian,” Jane grumbled, but Darcy didn’t really blame the boy.

“Thought you’d kicked the bucket, Secret Agent Man,” she tells Coulson as she’s ushered into a black SUV. Darcy could tell that he’s struggling against the tilt of the corner of his lips.

“The world couldn’t handle it.”

Duena snorts.

She could relate.

* * *

 

They try experiments.

Almost all of them end in failure one way or another. (Duena’s skin is tougher than an Asgardian’s, and she highly doubts Terra had the means to inflict anything resembling the knots of raised skin that spans the upper half of her body.)

They try interrogation.

Failure once again. (Torture didn’t work for obvious reasons, and any pain they inflicted on her could never compare to the torture she suffered at Thanos’ hands, and she dimly remembers Gamora whispering in the dead of night, when all their siblings are asleep save for the two of them. “Whatever nightmares the future holds are but dreams compared to what's behind me.”)

They try coercion.

This is something Duena can get behind. (“We don’t trust you,” Nick Fury says, despite Coulson’s purposeful cough from right behind him. “ _I_ don’t trust you. But _someone_ does. So I’m only going to ask this once: How would you like to fight for planet Earth?”)

The council is outraged, but Coulson assures her they’re always angry about something or other.

As much as she tries to be pissed off about the inhumane attitude towards her general existence—Darcy broke the collarbone of the man who called her an ‘alien slut’ after she kicked his ass in training—Darcy can’t fault them for it.

The human race.

Seven billion apes running about their daily lives content with the lie that they are the center of the universe.

Seven billion people who laugh, cry, get sad, get scared—and lash out against anything that causes that fear—and Duena of Lumin—now fully Darcy Lewis, after sixteen years—relishes every second of it.

Her sisters would sneer at the sentiment.

Her brothers would gawk at the compassion that has built up within her.

Her father _—not_ her father, she reminds herself—would burn down the world for making her relapse after decades of training.

But Darcy Lewis couldn’t care less.

Here, in the armpit of the universe, she is safe.

Here, on planet Earth, she is happy.

**Author's Note:**

> title is from the Doctor Who track by the same name by Murray Gold
> 
> Lumin actually is a fictional alien race in the Marvel universe.  
> Basically they look exactly like humans-maybe on the short side-but they live up to several thousand years and are basically indestructable in the meantime.


End file.
